17th October 2022 My first Blog

 

Blog No 2 for Christmas 2022 From Fr Jonathan

This photo is from outside the chapel door at the Claritas Spirituality Centre where I live in community with a small group of Men Religious. It was a beautiful view with a small bit of light overcoming the clouds above and the mists on the fields as the light will overcome the darkness.

Left to Right: Milto (Brazil), Nadeem ofm min. Pakistan, Self, Theo ofm cap. Holland, Br Raphael O. Carm. Brazil, Rozhan Lal, brother of Nadeem, Aaron OC Workers of Christ, Philippines.

We are celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception 8 December 2018

Here I add a Christmas song you might like to hear it or not; I would wish it would be sung and acted upon to end all the different wars on this earth today. It is a Christmas gift to anyone who wishes to read this blog. Type in or copy and paste into a computer or mobile or tablet: Celtic Thunder – Christmas 1915 I would recommend put it on full screen.

In Loppiano all of us are trying to build a united world where everyone is a brother or sister who care and support all others, especially those in need. We begin wherever we are living; it must be firstly with those we live with. Here in Loppiano for me the small group of men religious. The gospel phrase that sums up the life of the Focolare Movement is from John 17: 21 “May they all be One”. This is the specific aim of the charism of unity whose founder was a woman, Chiara Lubich. It deals with the local but is a universal call.

Above is the house we live in which was a farmhouse. The Chapel on the left of the picture is where there was a stall for a few cows and behind it for the pigs. Where the piggery is we have our washing machine to look after our laundry. We are entirely self-sufficient and must prepare our food, keep the house clean, look after our washing, welcome visitors, pray together, have meditation together, do the shopping, take part in the Loppiano programme all together and so on. My job at the present is to clean the four toilets and the beautifully tiled corridor upstairs once a week, and to help with washing up and setting things up in the dining room etc. So far I have not done any cooking. 

There are 800 people living in Loppiano from 60 different countries. All are here to live the Gospel because they have been touched by the powerful charism of unity. Our aim as consecrated religious is to contribute to the whole while we are here. We live for the phrase “May they all be One (John 17: 21) and be a missionary or a monk or whatever. Everyone has a vocation; everyone has their gifts from God with different stories and gifts and we learn from each other. The Gospel is what unites us all as the people of God, and we share what the Word of God says to us in this context. The ongoing formation is therefore a learning curve. This learning is well structured and something we have chosen to come to do with the support of our superiors in Religious Life in our case. 

Our first thing for our group of the programme happened on Saturday 1^st of October: I had arrived on the Wednesday of that week, 28^th October. We went to learn in Assisi of the way God had worked on Francis of Assisi to follow the plan of God in his life. There were members of the three of the various “Ongoing Formation Schools” from Loppiano together: the men religious, the diocesan priests, and the young men called “focolarini” training to be consecrated laypeople in the world.

The priests and lay people on this day come from France, Brazil, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, India, Malta, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Spain, Germany, Vietnam and England (taking the photo). This was the first moment of our pilgrimage in the Franciscan Church in Rivortorto outside Assisi nearby the medieval leper colony. Above is a photo of the Mass at the beginning of our pilgrimage at Rivotorto where the conversion of Saint Francis began. Francis knew God was calling him as he was unsatisfied by his life, especially after being in a prison in Perugia for a year after he was captured in battle. Jesus asked him to do what for him was repulsive: to embrace and stay with the lepers who were the living dead of the Middle Ages.

There was a leper colony about 2 miles from the walled city of Assisi where these wretched men, women and children were separated from those free of their disease. In the 12th and early 13th Centuries. Francis’ conversion happened when he changed from being a rich young man to live a life of radical poverty. He had come from a very wealthy family; a man who loved feasts, merrymaking and adventures who led a free and easy-going life as a romantic dreamer, a troubadour type. He was a 12th and 13th Century equivalent of a spoiled modern day young man, doted on by his very wealthy parents who had great ambitions for their son.

Embracing the leper and living among them was the first step on a long journey. What was constant was his joy and happiness in his new way of living. Some of his old friends from Assisi visited their old  “swash-buckling Francis” who had already felt the call to follow God in some way. His joy and his contagious happiness led them to follow the way of Francis in his new life. They wanted to have what he had, happiness and peace. This was the beginning of the Franciscan Movement and involves this radical change in many different forms. Jesus spoke to St Francis “to rebuild his church” from this crucifix above. Francis took it literally and he did rebuild the ruined Church of St. Damian near Assisi. His vision widened under the grace of God, and he realised his calling was not literal but universal.

Below is the little chapel where he died. This chapel was given to Francis by the Benedictines of Assisi, and now a vast Basilica is built over it. It was where the first group of Franciscans lived after Rivotorto which was too small. They lived in such poverty that although they worked in the fields of the farmers they would not take any money. They could not afford the “books” to pray from so Francis got two sturdy pieces of wood from the forest of trees and made a cross for them. This was their “book” for the following of Christ. They got gifts from the people who sustained them, although they too were poor. 

We were being reminded in Assisi that to be a disciple of Jesus is the same for everyone. God is the one who influences people today and they too must learn to make their own “conversions” to give themselves to the Love that is God shown to us in Jesus. All of us are on that path and the choice happens again and again as it is not a single experience but for each day. I am a slow learner, it is Jesus himself who tells me what I must do, usually in conversations with other people who know the charism of unity. 

Later, on Saturday 28^th October we had a day with all the others of all the schools on the foundation stone of the disciple of Jesus i.e “That God is love”. This was done with an imaginative start. 50 sayings of different people were put up for us to look at and reflect on. One of them was from Friedrich Nietzsche: “Once the devil said to me: God himself has his taste of hell; it is his love for human beings.” I was amazed at this saying of his because Nietzsche was an atheist; can an atheist believe there is a devil? 

Below is a photo of the whole group of us in all the different schools on that day 28^th October including families this time, and the women’s side of the ongoing formation groups together with those who accompany them.

We had a whole morning sharing in groups and being all together on the theme. The rule in Loppiano is to live the New Commandment of Jesus; “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). This is the starting point for all the inhabitants. God gives us the gift that he promised: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them” (Mt 18:20). The founder, Chiara Lubich, and her first companions were helped by the Holy Spirit to receive the charism they were being given. We always aim to let the Holy Spirit allow us the presence of Jesus in our midst as has happened from the events of the lives of the first times of the Work of Mary as it was called. 

Mary gave birth to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Spiritually Jesus is born in us when we receive and embrace the gift that the Holy Spirit gives. Therefore the Church has named this Movement “The Work of Mary”. Often Jesus is someone we can feel is present by the reaction in our hearts. 

People shared through their own experiences about how the Love that is God had helped them. This reminded me about the implications of how I must live together with my neighbours; in the past when on the parishes it was the parishioners, when I was in the monastery it was the monks, and now when I am here in Scuola Claritas it is the Religious living here. The implications continue to be understood better and better. 

This charism we are learning about and putting into life has many facets. It takes time to learn, and the learning continues even in older age. This charism has a universal vision that must be put into practice locally where we live. The specific aim of everyone in the Focolare Movement is taken from the phrase of the Gospel: “May they all be One” (John 17:21). This also became clear through the events of life. 

In the first instance this must be directed to the members of the Church itself. In a way the Holy Spirit is calling us to renew the whole Church which is like what Jesus from the Cross shown above said to St Francis: “Rebuild my Church”. All our founders in Religious Life would agree with this challenge for their disciples. The Focolare Movement or “The Work of Mary” is helping us to allow Jesus to be born again in our times in every sector of the Church and of the world we live in. It is contributing towards this aim alongside many other things going on in the Church and the world today as in the past and in the future. 

This is some of the other things that have gone on since I arrived here.Encounters we had with groups of people that came to hear about us as Religious trying to live and work for unity.

• 25 or so young people ages 17-25 came from Switzerland to visit and came to see us in Claritas.
•  A parish group of young people from Milan, a bit older than the Swiss group with their parish priest did the same.
•  A group of 50 Dominican sisters came from one Italian congregation. We from Claritas had a formal chat with them and shared questions and comments.
•  We have had visitors ourselves to stay: a Capuchin and a Friar Minor, both theologians, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate for a week’s retreat; a young Brazilian Carmelite who is making his final vows in January next. 
• There are quite a lot of needs for confessions with a chat among the people here, mainly among the priests who are in Ongoing formation too, and the focolarini (men) and focolarine (women).
•  A founder of a new Religious Order in Brazil visited to chat and exchange views. The charism the Holy Spirit is giving him relates to using the modern media opportunities to spread the gospel.
•  I was asked to speak in front of the Loppiano family alongside others to share my experience of life.
• Individuals or couples come to have “A little taste of this charism” from anywhere. Some travel a 100 miles or more. It happens over a week-end; Saturday and Sunday. With others I shared with them.
• There are always guests staying in other parts of Loppiano. I was introduced to a Pentecostal Pastor and his wife and small group who has a continuing dialogue with Pope Francis; he came to visit Loppiano as he knows this spirit in the USA where they all came from.·        
• There is the continual ongoing work at Sophia University. I have had lectures on “Trinity, Theology and Anthropology” and on “Bernard Lonergan” and his new approach philosophically to theology, and life. There are sessions of sharing with students and the professors on how the Word of God impacts on each person. There is a great sense of family in the University that is quite unique. The aim of Sophia is that all should contribute to learning Wisdom. As Wisdom for us in Loppiano is a gift from God, Wisdom is in the end God himself. Wisdom as a gift from God is understandable for believers. In other universities I have never heard faith in God as a part of their academic work. To find Wisdom really means to give all of self to others to learn the mystery of self. There is rigorous academic thinking given to us in the lectures; and during the lectures it is normal to ask questions and to make comments from the students to the professor who welcomes such questions and comments. The Professors are experts in their fields. The University is small enough to allow this personal way of learning and dialogue.
• There are two more practical things that have happened while I have been here in the last three months that I would like to share with you in a fuller way.

 On Sunday 16^th October 2022 Milton from Brazil invited this family to visit us. 

On Sunday 16^th October 2022 Milton from Brazil invited this family to visit us. The family shared their story with us. Luiz Sarpino who takes the photo is a lawyer and teaches law in the University of his town there. Renata, his wife is on the right at the back with her son Luca between her and Nadeem the Franciscan Friar from Pakistan. She has two other children, Maita who sits next to me and her mum. Lis is the eldest child, and she sits next to Milton and me.  Waving at us is Egidio Canil, the one responsible for Claritas and a Franciscan of the Padua congregation of conventual life.The whole family is living in a Loppiano house now theirs in an area called the Loreto School which is the name for Ongoing formation for the families. Lis must now be about 8 or 9, the twins are 6 now.

The parents had found at first their married life was not so easy as they had dreamed. They both had a strong Catholic faith. After Lis was born, they wanted more children and yet still they had their difficulties. Then the twins came along and Maita is the elder. They soon discovered that there was something wrong with Maita, while Luca was a perfectly normal young boy. It was something that became a huge suffering. Maita did not progress; she could not stand, she did not develop her speaking, and she was unable to look after herself at all. She has been in her wheelchair since she started to grow bigger. She cannot eat without help, and Renata has given up her job as a teacher to look after this second daughter. She and her husband Luiz were both overcome with worry and suffering. How could they cope? 

Their faith taught them, also with the help of their friends and others. They realised that God had given them this cross in their lives out of love. He cannot be or do otherwise. Just as Jesus felt he could no longer cope on the cross and yet his faith told him that though God had abandoned him he had the faith in his humanity to say, “into your hands I commend my spirit”, so it happened with Luiz and Renata. 

In fact, in the charism of unity and through events that happened to the founder Chiara Lubich and her companions, that moment of the cross when Jesus felt forsaken was the one for them when Jesus loved us the most. Those young girls in 1944 decided to love as Jesus loves us in this moment of his life. They wanted to share this kind of Love, “Jesus in his Forsakeness”. Sometimes they too seemed forsaken by God; and I guess sometimes all of us have felt like that.

Above also is a picture of Lis and Luca playing after running about. Luca is like any young boy of his age, sometimes getting a bit sulky and no doubt Lis is the same. Thank God the other children are so normal.

To live always in a family situation loving each other as parents and with their children is the way that families who know the “Work of Mary” try to live their married life. Jesus promised that he would be among those for he said: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Mt 18:20). Everyone in the Focolare movement learns through the events that happened to the founder Chiara Lubich and her companions that there are two sides to the one coin of the treasure of Jesus in the midst. On one side is unity, the life of the resurrection, on the other side is the highest suffering of Christ. He cried out on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. The relationship that marked the whole of Jesus’ life was his union with God the Father

It was understanding that God always has a good purpose for suffering which often we do not see that developed the spiritual lives of Luiz and Renata for the good of their marriage. They realised they must embrace Maita in her need which God had allowed joyfully. They needed to love each other and their other children and Maita. All would help and support each other, including Maita with her physical handicap. She has many positives to share with them too. This was their way ahead. Maita is the one who is at the centre of what Loppiano is about. Above all Maita gives out love to others and so people like me can grow in learning to love. The greatest bond of course is between mum and Maita.

I pray for Maita that one day she may be like the famous Helen Keller who learnt with the help of others to overcome her total deafness, blindness and communicate. Helen wrote her autobiography, and was a pro-life activist. If you want to watch a touching film over Christmas look on “YouTube Helen Keller”. It is the film of how she learnt to communicate. Helen was from the USA. Her condition was different to that of Maita who cannot talk, but can see; she is deaf and disabled, while Helen Keller was bling and deaf. She could however walk.

The final event concerns inter faith dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Islamic world. It concerns Mohammed Shomali who will be remembered by the Ampleforth community when Abbot Timothy became immersed in Christian and Muslim dialogue after his visit to Iran and the famous universities of Kom. Among them in Kom is a University (or seminary as the Iranians call it) for those who study their holy Koran and become scholars in the Shiite tradition of Islam.

Mohammed Shomali first met the Focolare Movement in Liverpool in 1997, 25 years ago. He wanted to meet Christians and learn about them in community life. He was in Manchester doing a doctorate in the University as well as looking after the Shiite community in Manchester. Mhanaz his wife was doing a PhD which eventually became a book “Love in Christianity and Islam”. Although they lived in a typical Mancunian street with their chldren, he had no contacts with the neighbours or the local Christians which they wanted to have. 

An Iranian friend who was a scholar and a friend of Mahnaz lived in Italy. She had got to know the Focolare Movement and when Mahnaz told her friend about their predicament, she suggested that they should contact the Focolare Movement in the UK to meet Christians. Mohammed came to a day meeting at Hope University, Liverpool and I was there as well. We both got to know each other and kept in touch. That year I contracted shingles and had to get away from Leyland to recuperate. I stayed with my brother in Cambridge and at the end when I got better, I went to Ampleforth for further recuperation. Mohammed arranged to come when I was there, and he got to know Abbot Timothy and from that a lot developed. Abbot Timothy left Ampleforth to give space to the new Abbot Patrick. It was then that he devoted a lot of his time to Islamic Christian dialogue. 

One development for Mohammed has been his meeting with Sophia University. The Rector of the University at that time was a diocesan priest, Fr. Piero Coda who is well known in the Church in Italy. Coda holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Turin and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome where he also taught from 1985 to 2008. He is currently full professor of Trinitarian ontology at the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, founded by Chiara Lubich where he was dean from 2008 to 2020. He has been appointed from September 2021 to be the Secretary General of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission of the Catholic Church. 

The latest meeting of Shiite Catholic dialogue within the Focolare Movement was the 10^th meeting that Professor Mohammed Shomali and Piero Coda have named “Wings of Unity”. It is between the Sophia University and the Shiite Muslims. I was present for the first time at their whole meeting and the topic dealt with the Christian understanding within the life of the Holy Trinity as it effects our lives on earth. Roberto Castalano is an Italian who lived in India for 30 years is a Professor of Interreligious dialogue, and he led the meeting. He shared about the difficulties for Hindus in India with both Christians and Muslims because both religions as far as Hindus are concerned want to proselytise others to enter their faith. Both within the Focolare Movement and within the dialogues promoted in the Catholic Church, there is no attempt to proselytise but to have real dialogue. That is not possible if those on both sides are not firm in their own beliefs and simply sharing and finding points of communion between the different faiths.

We had a very good input from Israa Safieddiene on Tuesday 13^th December last. She was one of the women Shiite scholars who was at “Wings of Unity” from the USA with her sister Shahnaze. You can see them best in the photo below. They come from the USA, born there of Lebanese origin. They are open, friendly, dedicated to Christian/Islamic dialogue, and very bright. The title of Israa’s talk linked to slides on the screen was “Submerging ourselves into the Ocean of the Divine”. She illustrated her talk on the spirit and story of the Sufis, where Mystics in Islam fit in. It was an enlightening talk and from that talk as well as the support given by Piero Coda on the Trinity in the life of Christians, there seemed a new opening to explore more fully. We ended up realising where God was leading us. He led us into Mystical Theology. There is a lot that unites the Mystics of this world both on the Christian side and on the Islamic side. A mystic has the grace from God and disciplines himself / herself to know God beyond words. All of us are called to be mystics, and the founders of religious orders are usually mystics and prophets. Jesus himself was the Mystic.

On that same evening, last Tuesday Sophia University put on a light Christmas dinner for students and professors who wanted to attend. It was not the total Christmas meal as we have in Britain or in Italy but was a lovely gesture. I joined the Muslims that included Mohammed and the two sisters with others from the University.  At this table there was no Alcohol, which was available for all the others at the Christmas meal, but it made not the slightest difference. We all ended up with the well known Christmas cake of Italy: large numbers of panettone which went down a treat. I drank pure orange diluted with water. 

It was the feast of John of the Cross on the 14^th December and although the meeting was over it was a great reminder of one of the important Spanish Mystics alongside Teresa of Avila. They had a huge impact on the life of Christians ever since.

This was my first experience of “Wings of Unity” and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are certainly parallels with ecumenical dialogue, especially with the issue of that no one wants to proselytise but to dialogue. 

Have a very happy and holy Christmas in this troubled world. On Thursday last 15 December at our sharing in Sophia University we learned that the beautiful phrase “The Word became flesh and set up his tent among us” (John 1: 14) is what the translation really means of John Chapter 1 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. The original phrase leaves us with the sense that in a really earthly way the Word of God “remains” always with us  as if in his dwelling place, the Arabic tent, after coming as the baby of Bethlehem.

 

I remember you all that I have known while being immersed in this very interesting world of Loppiano. I thank God and my Abbot for allowing me to come here and deepen with others the insertion into the Charism of Unity. It is something that will I think contribute to the good of the Church and the world for the future.

Have a very blessed and joyful Christmas. I will remember each one of you that have made me to be the person I am and have shown me how God has remained with us and among us. I will pray before the crib in Loppiano for all your intentions, problems and worries as well as in thanksgiving for all your joys.

Let us go forward into 2023 knowing that the baby who will be born again in our hearts and lives in us and among us is a living everlasting rock on which to build our house. We can trust in the Lord forever as we bring the revolution of a new way of living the Christian life to the Church and the World.

A final prayer for our world at Christmas time from the President of the Focolare Movement, Margaret Karram who is a Palestinian Christian from Haifa now based just outside Rome. She wrote this prayer for the Worldwide Link Up of the Focolare Movement 17 December 2022.

 

Come Lord Jesus, hurry and come,

The whole world can no longer cope!

A dark night has come down,

The Star has disappeared from the sky.

Who will guide us now to Bethlehem,

To meet the Prince of Peace?

Who will help us rekindle in many hearts

the flames of a love that burns

and becomes art?

 

It’s Christmas.

Come back, come to us Lord Jesus.

We want to welcome you like we have never done before.

More than ever in the past, we want to recognise you in those who suffer:

the poor, the lonely, those in despair, sick or abandoned.

 

Grant that we may hear the cry

of those who no longer hope, of those who no longer believe!

Grant that we be people of peace.

Give us strength.

Give us the courage to echo the angels

and like them proclaim:

joy, hope, peacefulness, fraternity!

 

Best wishes to all....and may we live in this way....and Merry Christmas to all!!! Buon Natale, Bon Noël, Feliz Navidad, feliz Natal, Frohe Weihnachten, Nollaig Shona (Irish), تحياتي بمناسبة عيد رأس السنة (Arabic), khag molad sameakh! (Modern Hebrew) С Рождеством Христовым (Russian and Ukrainian).